Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-05-27
A. ReMlNIscENcE OF EMERSON.
Personal Impressions of a Friend of tho
nlusfrinus Observation-Disclosures

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Ulustrious NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
The subject of discussion at the meet
ing of the Starr King Fraternity was
Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the principal
attraction was a paper by G.. j. Wood
bury, of Oakland, who was an acqusint-
ance and friend of the illustrious philoso-
pher. After giving his personal impress
sions at some length, the speaker consid-
cred the nature of Emerson's influence.
He said:
IL answer without hesitation, to me he
was simply stimulator, awakener. 1t is
my conviction that, like Pascal and
Gurnall and Rousseau and Herder and
Leasing and Carlyle, he will always be
read by the young rather than the old,
forcing his way, not by reasoning and
syllogisms, but by feeling, imagination
and intuition, and so driving one to new
and strange attitudes of thought and
action. Sometimes, | think, this was the
most conmon if not the only way in
which he looked upon himself. Ger
tainly, | am not prepared to say it was in
Joke that he said of himself: DO not
count on me as standing anywhere, | I'M
settle everything This l do know, l
wouldn't let him look even into a cup of
coffee for which had any respect, for to
me he was a born iconoclast. He brought
the whole existing order with which l
had been familiar into doubt. He taught
me to have no respect for the old simply
because it was old. And to me ever after
meeting him the old became far too often
the obsolete. Nothing that is, l came to
learn, is entitled to respect simply because
it is. He smote me thus as in the fore
head at our very first interview. The oc-
casion was the return of IN article | had
brought him with his suggestions in
pencil on the margin. He fell to it and
gave me a lecture on composition which
was a clear departure from everything
the professor of rhetoric had beer teach
ing us for two years.
"'You shall nave no firstly or secondly
or thirdly, he said. You shall make no
skeleton or plan. You shall have no
peroration or exordium. What is it you
are writing for, anyway? What do you
want to say? Say it! Out with it, Don't
lead up to it. Don't try to let your
nearer down from it. That is to be COM
monplace. Say it with all the force and
grace you al and stop.
." i see you write verses sometimes. ]
suppose you read your verses over after
you have written them?'
Certainly
81 suppose, then, after a little they
grow old to your
Indeed they do
"'And you continue to write. If, after
a long time, you look any of your line:
over, and you come to n or a success
sion and say to yourself. That is good, :
it is good, no matter what any one say:
to the contrary, but destroy without de
lay everything else. Poetry, whether i
comes in dreams or in CLEANS, is Away.
noble and holy. 1t must serve no sordiC
use. 1t is of the above. You must keel
some fact books for poetry. l think tina
they are much more nearly related t
poetry than rhyme or rhythm. Stud,
Greek for expression, but the poetic fac
is half the battle. For your fact book
gather and search everything. but you
shall not read Prescott or Bancroft o
Motley or MOntaigne. Prescott is
thorough man. Bancroft reads enor
mously; always understands his subject
Motley vas painstaking and practical
but their style Stays. Neither of then
lifts himself off his feet. They have n,
Tilt in them
Il think now, without betraying pub
fishers confidence, | can venture to Civ
you a few of Mr.. Emerson's expression
, to me which are in the line of the direc
purpose of these memories. They ar
just as fresh as when they were uttered
over half a generation ago, although they
like everything he said, are more easil
understood when read than when listene,
/, to.
"'Shut your book when your owl
thought comes. 1t is of more value thai
that of the angel Gabriel.
) "'There is 10 strong Performance
, without a little fanaticism on the part O
= the performer. When you meet a son O
5 Kentucky his very presence seems to say
If you like me, well; if you don't, loo
out for yourself.
: 81 commlserate any n who is sui
, ject to the misery of being overplaced
What you are stands over you and thur
ders and denies what you say
? "'Did you ever think about the logi
: of brain stimulus: Nature supplies he
, own. 1t is astonishing what she will d
I if you will give her a chance. Even tn
most tired brain will get relief under tn
q apple tree on the grass. Later in life
e cup of tea perhaps, but tobacco-wha
p rude crowbar is this with which to pr
5 into the delicate tissues of the brain?'
"'In study do not stop until you en-
r counter the fact with your own hand
Y Search by all shows and learn just hoy
it now stands. Though the reward c
q the market is in the thing done, the tru
reward is in the doing. '"-Oakland Gal.
. Enquirer.